Pixie (X-Men)
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| Pixie | |
|---|---|
| File:Pixie on the cover of X-Men Pixies and Demons (Director's Cut).jpg Pixie as an X-Man. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | New X-Men: Academy X #5 (November, 2004) |
| Created by | Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir (writers) Michael Ryan (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Megan Gwynn |
| Species | Human Mutant |
| Team affiliations | X-Men New X-Men Xavier Institute Paragons Training Squad. |
| Abilities |
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Pixie (Megan Gwynn) is a fictional character, a mutant in the Marvel Universe. She is notable as a member of the former New X-Men team and is now part of the Uncanny X-Men team.
Fictional character biography
Megan Gwynn is a Welsh teenager from a fictional mining town called Abergylid. Her father died in the mine and because of that she had a fear of the mine. In her original inception she had short pink hair, pure black eyes and butterfly-like rainbow wings. Subsequent artists drew her wings in different ways and neglected to make her eyes black. When artist Skottie Young was brought on board a fan asked him to bring back the black eyes which he happily obliged[citation needed].
Paragons squad
After enrolling at the Xavier Institute, Pixie became a part of the Paragons training squad under the tutelage of former New Mutant member Rahne Sinclair[volume & issue needed]. She also always wore a bicycle helmet during training sessions.
During this time, she developed a crush on the X-Man Cyclops and was considered a cheerful girl who fit in well with other students; she was even voted Friendliest Student.[1]
M-Day
Following the events of House of M, almost all of the Institute's students were depowered, which led to the dissolution of the school's training squads. Pixie was one of only twenty-seven students, including her fellow Paragons Trance, Wolf Cub, and Match, not to have lost her mutant abilities.
She participated in Emma Frost's Battle Royale which determined who will train to be an X-Man. Later, forty-two of Pixie's former classmates died when their bus was attacked by William Stryker, an anti-mutant crusader. Among the confirmed deaths was Gwynn's fellow Paragon, DJ.[volume & issue needed]
Quest For Magik
Pixie, along with Anole, Loa, Wolf Cub, Rockslide, and Match, were told a frightening ghost story by their fellow student Blindfold one night at the school[volume & issue needed]. However, the story was not fictitious but rather a prophecy; telling Pixie that she is "sorry for [her] loss," Pixie and her classmates were sucked into the realm of Limbo, where they were immediately attacked by a mob of demons.
Pixie stayed by Blindfold's side during the fight, and Blindfold cautioned Pixie and the others that Pixie must not "fall to darkness." Pixie used her powers on-panel for the first time during the fight, incapacitating several demons with her "pixie dust." After Magik saves the small group, she asks N'astirh to bring Pixie to her. Despite her friends' pleas, Megan submitted to Magik's request for a soul to create a Soulsword, but due to Anole’s intervention, the spell wasn’t finished resulting in the creation of a soul dagger instead. Magik then explained that the soul dagger is actually a portion of Pixie's own soul and that black magic has now filled the hole left behind in the knife's creation, leaving Pixie no longer as innocent - as well as changing a great portion of her pink hair to black.[volume & issue needed]
Pixie was taught a teleportation spell by Magik and Pixie used it to teleport herself and her friends to Belasco to stop him from torturing the rest of the team. Telling Magik that she must use the Souldagger to stab Belasco in order to save her friends, Pixie asked Magik why she chose Pixie; Magik responds that Pixie is the most innocent of all her friends and that, in Limbo, innocence is power. Pixie followed Magik's instructions and kills Belasco, losing more of her innocence. [volume & issue needed]
After defeating Belasco, Magik wanted to use more of Pixie's soul to create more bloodstones but changed her mind when she saw her brother and sends Pixie and the others back to the Xavier Institute. Pixie was then made an official member of the New X-Men by insistence of Rockslide.[volume & issue needed]
However, the fact Pixie lost a part of her soul also shows a significant change in her appearance. From now on her wings are not brightly coloured anymore, they are a kind of grey. Her hair is now pink with black stripes.
Children of X-Men
Sitting in the medical lab with Dust and Nezhno, Pixie revealed that Doctor Strange will tutor her in magic when she comes of age. She also questioned Dust about her religion, incorrectly referring to Dust's abaya and niqāb as a burqa. Corrected by Nezhno, she gushes over how he protected her in Limbo. [2]
Shortly thereafter, she participated in a training session with Wolverine where she made him see unicorns. She was also questioned by Mercury about her age and Hellion assumed she is the youngest because she is the most immature.[3]
Blinded By The Light
Pixie, along with the other New X-Men takes part in a battle against the Acolytes when they attacked the Xavier Institute seeking to obtain the Destiny Diaries and eliminate Blindfold.[4]
Messiah Complex
When the first new mutant since M-Day appeared, Pixie joined X-23, Hellion, Anole, Surge, Armor, and Rockslide in attacking the Washington, D.C. base of the anti-mutant Purifiers by teleporting them there. They were confronted by Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers. When Hellion is injured and the Reavers are about to attack, Pixie panics and cannot teleport the team out until Rictor, who infiltrated the Purifiers as a spy, helps her concentrate. Pixie does so but blindly teleports the team, scattering them between Washington, D.C. and the Xavier Institute. Injured, she mentally calls out to Emma Frost, breaking Emma's concentration on the fight between a group of X-Men and the Marauders.[5]
Later, back at the mansion, she is with several other students and Beast when Predator X attacks several students outside, then changes tactics to go after the weaker wounded students in the infirmary. Pixie, realizing that X-23 had killed this type of creature before, attempts to teleport Predator X to X-23's location, but mistakenly takes the majority of the students and Beast along with her and the creature, dropping them in the middle of the X-Men's fight with the Marauders on Muir Island.
During the fight, Pixie is brutally beaten by the Malice-possessed Omega Sentinel, who taunts Pixie until Megan unexpectedly stabs her foe with her soul dagger, exorcising Malice from Omega Sentinel's body.
She is later seen being consoled by Mercury after Professor X is shot and mortally wounded.[6]
Pixies and Demons
Following the events of Messiah Complex, Pixie returns to her hometown to find the N'Garai have plagued the town and are kidnapping people to feed Kierrok the Damned, their leader. Pixie calls in the X-Men to help defeat the N’Garai and Megan has to face her fear of the mine in which her father was killed to defeat the demons plaguing her town. After defeating Kierrok, Cyclops and the rest of the X-Men take her back to America and she joins the newly reformed X-Men in San Francisco.[7]
Manifest Destiny
After leaving one of Dazzler's gigs, Pixie is ambushed by a group of masked anti-mutant men calling themselves the Hellfire Cult while leaving a club. She is overpowered by the attackers and is subjected to beatings that leave her incapacitated. She manages to make her way back to the X-Men's new base and is immediately taken care of by Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Karma, and Beast.[8]
While in recovery, Beast organises for Dazzler to come meet Pixie to make her feel better. Pixie is offered a gig by Dazzler but turns her down and later sneaks out to hang with some art kids only to be caught by Wolverine. He asks her if she really wants to hang out with them instead of her friends in Marin. Pixie says it hasn't been a great year for her and confesses she just wants to be a normal girl to which Wolverine replies she isn't. Later Pixie realises her mistake, ditches her art friends and goes to crash with some friends, wondering what could possibly go wrong.
She goes to find the X-Men out in the field to assist them and helps take down Empath, whose powers have grown and are out of control. After beating him up, she stabs him in the head with her soul dagger leaving him blind and his powers weakened. Afterwards she is seen dancing onstage at one of Dazzler's gigs.[9]
Pixie fights alongside the X-Men when the Skrulls invade San Francisco. She later acts as bait for the Skrulls.[10]
X-Infernus
While training with Nightcrawler, he brings up her soul dagger, upsetting Megan. Kurt points out that people have noticed when she uses it, her personality changes. Pixie summons her soul dagger, her personality changing, and she stabs Kurt in the chest, knocking him out. Mercury and Rockslide who are watching the session rush in and pull her away from from Kurt. Beast enters and is shocked at what he finds. Pixie's soul dagger is stuck in Kurt's chest and when she removes it, she releases the Soulsword. Magik, who suddenly senses the Soulsword being drawn, teleports into the X-Men's base to reclaim it.[11]
After Magik takes out Mercury, Rockslide and Beast and engages Pixie in combat. Pixie refuses to hand over the sword and demands she give back the portion of her soul that she took, but Magik defeats her and regains her sword. The X-Men gather the wounded and Pixie attempts to go after Magik, but Kurt stops her. Pixie is relieved to see him unharmed. The X-Men gather, now able to enter Limbo through Pixie's teleportation spell, and a team consisting of Colossus, Wolverine, Mercury, Rockslide, Pixie, and Nightcrawler is formed to reclaim Magik. Nightcrawler is put in charge due to Pixie and Peter's personal stake in the mission. Pixie then teleports the team into Limbo.[12]
While the X-Men battle various demons, Witchfire defeats Magik and adds Pixie's Bloodstone to her amulet causing Pixie to lose control and teleport herself to Belasco's castle. There, Witchfire forces her to become her new apprentice and begins forging a final new Bloodstone from Pixie's soul, causing her to transform completely into a demon.[13]
After Kurt frees Illyana and slices off Witchfire's hand. Kurt consoles Pixie and tells her to use the dagger to free Illyana because of their mutual connection. Witchfire uses the Bloodstones to summon the Elder Gods to her aid. While the X-Men battle the Elder Gods, Illyana fights Witchfire and strips her of the amulet containing the Bloodstones. Illyana and Pixie use their blades to destroy the amulet, but Witchfire escapes the crumbling castle with four Bloodstones into the Elder Gods' dimension. Pixie is despondent over losing more of her soul and tries to attack Magik with her Soul Dagger, but the glowing stone in its blade indicates that the stolen piece of her soul is inside it. Pixie flies away into the wilds of Limbo in tears, upset she lost another piece of her soul.[14]
Return from Limbo
Pixie returned to the X-Men and when she hears the news about Proposition X, she heads off to the Danger Room to let off some steam. During her session Wolverine and Beast note that since coming back from Limbo, she has become a more capable fighter and is a lot angrier. Later she sneaks off with Dazzler and Northstar and gets drunk. While sneaking back in they are caught by Cyclops. Pixie teleports off when Scott questions her about how sober she is, he notes that she can at least port while under influence, and scolds Alison and Jean-Paul because she is underage.[15]
Later when the Sisterhood of Mutants attack, Pixie teleports the students out to safety. She teleports in the Stepford Cuckoos and Elixir who heals Nightcrawler and Colossus while the Cuckoos beat up Chimera. Not knowing what to do, she figures out the Sisterhood only attacked the adults, not caring about about the students. She tries to think like Wolverine and figures Empath has something to do with the incapacitated adult X-Men and teleports off to confront him.[16]
Powers and abilities
Gwynn possesses insect-like wings (depicted of various colors, depending on the artist) that allow her to fly. Initially, her wings were broad and multicoloured, similar to a butterfly's, but recent depictions have her with iridescent, translucent wings, more like those of a dragonfly.
In addition, her mutation allows her to produces a "pixie dust" that causes hallucinations, often to comedic effect, such as demons seeing bright bubbles and teddy bears, and, in one instance, Wolverine seeing a herd of unicorns and subsequently trying to tear them apart. In another instance, Megan uses her dust seemingly harmlessly to enhance the audience's perceptions of Dazzler's light show during a concert. She states that she has no idea what individuals affected by her dust are seeing.
After Magik took part of Megan's soul in an attempt to create a Soulsword, her appearance was changed, reflecting the portion of her soul lost to black magic. Artists' depictions typically depict her pink hair with black streaks. She also has the ability to find evil supernatural creatures as evidenced when she fought the N'Garai who were under a cloaking spell. When asked how she knows where they are she replies, “there’s a sliver of darkness that Magik put inside my soul… And it’s like a compass needle for other dark… stuff.” She has also been trained in hand-to-hand combat at the institute.
As the spell to steal Megan's soul was interrupted, a new Soulsword could not be formed; instead, Megan can summon a soul dagger, a mystical item that disrupts magical constructs. Because of her connection with Magik, as Megan uses the soul dagger, her personality changes and becomes darker and more disturbing. Her dagger has recently changed from silver to a red magical metal ever since it has absorbed Pixie's bloodstone. It is not known if this change is merely cosmetic.
Unlike Magik's soul sword, Pixie's soul dagger appears to have physical effects beyond disrupting magic and harming magical creatures. The abilities of Malice and Empath are thought to be based on mutation and not magic. However, the soul dagger freed Karima Shapandar from Malice's influence. It also appears to have physically harmed Empath.
Though untrained in the mystic arts, as a sentient being of the Marvel Universe Pixie possesses the potential to wield magic. Pixie can recite the incantation taught to her by Illyana Rasputin (Sihal Novarum Chinoth) to teleport over long distances and to the dimension of Limbo.[17] She is capable of teleporting herself and large groups over vast distances with relative ease, though teleporting without focusing ("blind teleporting") can be hazardous.[18] Following the events of "Quest for Magik," Pixie was approached by both Doctor Strange and Amanda Sefton to receive formal tutelage in sorcery after she has come of age.
Other Media
Television
Pixie appears in the Wolverine and the X-Men episode "X-Calibre" voiced by Kate Higgins. She is depicted as having her trademark pink hair and colorful pixie wings. The only ability she displays is flight.[19] She is later seen arriving in Genosha in episode 10.
Footnotes
- ^ Pixie (Megan Gwynn) - Marvel Universe: The definitive online source for Marvel super hero bios
- ^ New X-Men #42
- ^ New X-Men #43
- ^ X-Men #200-204
- ^ X-Men #205
- ^ X-Men #207
- ^ Free Comic Book Day: X-Men (2008)
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #501
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #503
- ^ Secret Invasion: X-Men #2
- ^ X-Infernus #1
- ^ X-Infernus #2
- ^ X-Infernus #3
- ^ X-Infernus#4
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #509
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #510
- ^ X-Infernus #2
- ^ X-Men (2nd Series) #205
- ^ Wolverine and the X-Men Ep. 6
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